More Monticello

Here are some more shots from my trip to Monticello, as promised.  I’m trying to develop a style of taking good documentary photos while maintaining visual interest — something between snapshot and blatantly artsy.

Monticello is Italian for “little mountain”.  Little or not, there were some great views of the valleys around it, which is probably why Jefferson built this garden pavilion where he did.

f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO 100

f/5.3, 1/400 sec, ISO 100

This is what you see walking up to the side of the main house from the gift shop and bus stop:

f/4, 1/400 sec, ISO 100

This arcade is underneath one side of the main house and is where the kitchen and other servants’ quarters were located.  I wonder if I could have brightened this up by setting my metering mode differently.  I’m thinking spot metering on the left hand side/in the shade?  In reality, I only had a brief moment when there was no one in the shot so I hurried to take this photo.  My reflexes aren’t that quick to make such camera adjustments yet.  I’m working on it.

f/5, 1/640 sec, ISO 100

This sundial was on a porch leading from the side of the mansion to a smaller one-room building that was used as an office by TJ’s son-in-law.  I love how the low depth of field shots turned out!

f/3.2, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100

f/1.8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 100

And finally, a gnarly old tree along the garden path.  Apparently there is only one tree still standing on the property that was around in Jefferson’s time, but this isn’t it.  We never found the oldest tree.

f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 100

I’ll have one last post of images from this trip to share with you in a few days.  Imagine the bounty when I take a real trip somewhere!

Monticello

This past weekend the mister and I took advantage of the spring-like weather (finally!) took a day trip to Monticello.

Monticello was the home and life-long project of Thomas Jefferson — it took roughly forty years to complete!  I’m sure that was not helped much by his total revision of plans halfway through construction following his years as the ambassador to France.  With its inspirations from classical architecture, there was no other building like it in the U.S in its time.

f/9, 1/80 sec, ISO 100

f/8, 1/320 sec, ISO 100

We made it out on their last weekend of off-season prices, so the landscaping was still a little bare.

f/3.5, 1/500 sec, ISO 100

f/6.3, 1/250 sec, ISO 100

But it was still nice to revisit this piece of Americana and enjoy the spring-like weather.  It’s snowing (again) as I write this.  This should not be happening in late March!

f/13, 1/160 sec, ISO 100

I have some more detail shots that I’ll share in another post.  As always, I appreciate any tips for improvement you might have to offer — just leave a comment!

Ellicott’s Mills

f/4.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 100

This photo is from the same town as yesterday’s post.  I would be remiss to take all abstract photos on vacation, so here’s an attempt to capture a “landmark” (an old railroad station, in this case) while still paying attention to the composition of the image.  Any suggestions on how to balance the documentary perspective with the artistic?

f/11, 1/50 sec, ISO 100

U.S.S. Constellation

f/2.2, 1/320 sec., ISO 200

Looking back, I could have improved this shot by lowering my camera to capture more of the ship’s reflection in the water for a (nearly) full mirror image.